By PAULA ESPIRITU
www.nordis.net

LA UNION — In their own version of the State of the Nation Address (SONA), more than 4,000 students joined in the State of the Youth Address (SOYA) on July 19 to convey disappointment on the government’s continuing state desertion of education and call out for higher state budget for education.

The SOYA was organized by Kabataan Partylist together with the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), Anakbayan, Kabataang Artista para sa Tunay na Kalayaan (Karatula).

The Marcos Sports Center was filled by more than 4,000 students from Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University-South La Union Campus (DMMMSU-SLUC), students from other DMMMSU campuses and other schools in La Union.

The SOYA looked back at President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino’s first year in office and assessed his programs and policies especially those for the youth and the education sector.

The students criticized PNoy’s administration declaring that it was no different from the previous administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in terms of policies for education, economy, politics and others. Participating organizations cited the continuing cuts in the budgets of State Universities and Colleges (SUC) like that of DMMMSU amounting to P3,575,000 or 9.54 % from their budget.

“Nagpapatuloy ang malakihang pagkaltas ng budget sa mga State University tulad ng DMMMSU na humahantong sa pagtaas ng mga bayarin sa unibersidad. Tulad ng Student Development Fee sa DMMMSU na tumaas dahil, ayon mismo sa aming university president, walang binibigay na budget ang gubyerno para sa pagpapatayo ng mga facilities sa eskuwelahan. Napipilitan ang mga eskuwelahan na magtaas ng mga bayarin,” (Budgets cuts to SUCs like DMMMSU is continuing resulting to tuition and other school fees increase. DMMMSU’s Development Fee increased because according to the university president, the government do not allot budget for school facilities thus, SUCs are force to increase the fees) Katrin Hazel Hipona of NUSP said.

Aside from continuing budget cuts, students from private schools participating in the SOYA also expressed distress over the continuing commercialization of education as tuition and other fees of private higher education institutions (HEI) continue to sky rocket.

“Hindi humihinto ang pagtaas ng matrikula at iba pang mga bayarin sa mga eskuwelahan na nagpapahirap sa mga kabataan na mag-aral. Maraming mga exorbitant fees, unnecessary fees, redundant fees, at kung anu-ano pang fees na hindi naman kelangan ng mag-aaral. Nandun lang yung fees na mga ‘yun para madagdagan ang kita ng mga schools at ito ay pinapabayaan ng gubyerno,” (Tuition and other fees continue to increase. There are a lot of exorbitant, unnecessary and redundant fees imposed by school administrators for them to raise their profit but the government is not doing anything about it) Jean Alonzo of Kabataan Partylist said in an interview.

According to NUSP, the number of out of school youth is at 7.93 million and the government has cut 1 Billion peso from the education budget while the government allocate 1 Trillion peso for debt servicing.

The activity was part of a nationally coordinated Walkout for People’s Right against the Education Crisis under the US-Aquino regime. # nordis.net